Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Portugal church sex abuse study: Victims may number 4,800
LISBON, Portugal — More than 4,800 individuals may have been victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church and 512 alleged victims have already come forward with their stories, an expert panel looking into historic abuse in the church said Monday.
Senior Portuguese church officials had previously claimed that only a handful of cases had occurred.
Senior clergymen sat in the front row of the auditorium where panel members read out some of the harrowing accounts of alleged abuse included in their final report. There were vivid and shocking descriptions.
The Independent Committee for the Study of Child Abuse in the Catholic Church, set up by Portuguese bishops just over a year ago, looked into alleged cases from 1950 onward. Portuguese bishops are due to discuss the report at an extraordinary meeting March 3.
The statute of limitations has expired on most of the alleged cases. Only 25 allegations were passed to prosecutors, the panel said.
The report, criticized by some as long overdue, came four years after Pope Francis gathered church leaders from around the world at the Vatican to address the sex abuse crisis in the church.
That meeting was held more than 30 years after the scandal first erupted in Ireland and Australia and 20 years after it hit the United States.
Bishops and other Catholic superiors in many parts of Europe at the time continued to deny that clergy sex abuse existed.
The head of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, Bishop Jose Ornelas, asked the victims for forgiveness and apologized for the church having failed to grasp the scale of the problem.
NYC truck incident: A man driving a U-Haul truck swerved onto sidewalks and plowed into scooter riders in New York City on Monday, injuring multiple people before police were able to pin the careening vehicle against a building following a mileslong pursuit.
At least eight people were hurt, two critically. Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell described the driver’s actions as a “violent rampage through Brooklyn” but said there was no evidence of “terrorism involvement.”
The truck sped through the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn before police stopped it more than 3 miles away near the entrance to a tunnel leading from Brooklyn to Manhattan, authorities said.
The driver was arrested. Police didn’t release his name, but his son identified him as Weng Sor, and told The Associated Press he had a history of mental illness.
“Very frequently he’ll choose to skip out on his medications and do something like this,” said Stephen Sor, 30. “This isn’t the first time he’s been arrested.”
Court records show Weng Sor was sentenced to one to three years in a Nevada prison for stabbing his brother in Las Vegas in 2015.
Architect of Capitol fired:
President Joe Biden has fired embattled Architect of the Capitol Brett Blanton, who oversees the historic building that houses Congress and its grounds, as pressure mounted for removal following a scathing inspector general report of personal and management lapses.
The White House said Monday that Blanton’s appointment was terminated. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Monday he’d lost confidence in Blanton’s ability to do the job.
An inspector general report released last year found “administrative, ethical and policy violations” by Blanton, a Trump-era appointee, including that he abused his government vehicle and misrepresented himself as a law enforcement official.
A House hearing last week unearthed new questions and criticisms — including that he was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when it came under attack by former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
Moldova allegations:
Moldova’s president outlined Monday what she described as a plot by Moscow to overthrow her country’s government using external saboteurs, put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and derail its aspirations to one day join the European Union.
President Maia Sandu’s briefing comes a week after neighboring Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova, claims that were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials.
“The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostages,” Sandu told reporters at a briefing.
There was no immediate reaction from Russian officials to Sandu’s claims.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
A Palestinian man on Monday was killed in a shootout in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian paramedics said, while an Israeli policeman was killed while trying to stop a Palestinian stabbing attack in east Jerusalem, police said. The incidents were the latest violence in a surge of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting that began last spring and shows no signs of slowing.
The Israeli military said it carried out raids across the West Bank overnight and that troops came under fire during the arrest of two men suspected of killing an Israeli soldier in October. The army said the two wanted men were injured in the shootout in the northern city of Nablus and arrested.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Amir Bustami, 21, was killed in the Israeli army raid. It was not clear if he had been involved in the shootout.
In east Jerusalem, Israeli police said a young teenage Palestinian boy pulled out a knife and stabbed a paramilitary officer during a routine inspection at a military checkpoint. Police said a security guard opened fire, apparently shooting the officer. The boy was arrested, and the officer later died of his wounds, police said.
Myanmar loyal civilians:
Myanmar’s military government plans to allow loyal civilians, including government employees and retired military personnel, to carry licensed firearms, but they must comply with orders from local authorities to participate in security and law enforcement actions, the military and media reports said.
The announcement fanned fears of even more violence in a country wracked by what some U.N. experts have called a civil war.
A 15-page document about the policy attributed to the Ministry of Home Affairs was initially circulated on pro-military Facebook accounts and Telegram channels. The document says recipients of gun permits must be loyal to the nation, of good moral character and not involved in disturbing state security.